Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 44

pshrynk · 07-13-2008, 09:28 AM

"Glory Road" by Heinlein. Still waiting on "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress."

Lobolover · 07-13-2008, 01:10 PM

will hopefully start "The hounds of Tindalos" soon.

nekokami · 07-14-2008, 11:13 AM

Re-reading Steven Brust's Athyra.

pilotbob · 07-14-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DixieGal

It was me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I finished Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thought it was a good story. I stayed up a bit late last night finishing it since I knew it must be wrapping up. Wow, you almost need a genealogy chart to follow this one! I'm still not sure I got it all.

However, I don't classify it is SF/Fantasy... more Occult/Horror... although it was very minor.

I started YAFTB (yet another free TOR book) The Disunited States of America.

BOb

JSWolf · 07-15-2008, 09:55 PM

I finally finished The Stand and it was really good. I've decided to reread The Puppet Masters by Heinlein. I'm about 1/2 done and I'm finding it better the second time then I did the first time.

rixte · 07-17-2008, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ok, just finished The Baker's Boy. Not sure if I liked it enough to get the next two books of "The Book of Words" series. Does anyone know if they get better?

Also, not sure I want to go back to Star Dragon, it was going to slow and dragging... does it get any better?

I started reading Four and Twenty Blackbirds based on someone here, Dixie or Daffy, saying what an excellent book it was.

BOb

I found a lot of the narrative devices in The Baker's Boy really, really annoying, but liked other books by JV Jones so I pushed through. But imo, it really doesn't get any better, they're all about the same.

Her Cavern of Black Ice series is better written and The Barbed Coil is more interesting.

DixieGal · 07-17-2008, 02:23 PM

Finished: Year's Best SF 13

It's good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as usual because of a technical difficulty - it was in secure IMP format with smallish print. As my eyesight worsens, I'm finding that I have to use mobi2imp in order to get really large print. As for the stories themselves, about half had happy endings. The other half ended in doom and gloom. However, they were all truly good scifi, emphasis on the sci.

TOC:

Baby Doll by J Sinisalo
Addresses a possible near future in which children ever more young live like favorite pop stars with drugs, sex, and overall jadedness. Frankly, it sort of scared me.
Aristotle OS by T Ballantyne
I enjoyed this story about "upgrades" to operating systems that were based on the writings of various philosophers. The OS's edit writing to reflect the various philosophers' world view. Now, back in the 80's, Asimov wrote something similar that this story reminded me of. In Asimov's story, back at the dawn of personal computing and word processing, he tells a story of a writer being forced to use a word processor, which is "smart" and learns his writing style well enough to edit him, then suggest writing ideas, and eventually take over writing books in the writer's style, thereby removing the writer from significance.
The Last American by J Kessel
Presented in the form of a documentary in the far future, when human history is being studied. To me, the subject of the documentary seems to be a blending of Columbus and Washington. He has mythological heroic deeds attributed to him, as well as, perhaps, exaggerated defeats and failings. Made me think of the History Channel documentaries.
Memorare by G Wolfe
(This was one of the Fictionwise freebies when it became a finalist for the Nebula award last spring)
This was my second reading of this story, and although it was good the first time around, it was better this time. Having foreknowledge of events made things that previously seemed significant stand out even more. It's the semi-near future, and private space travel within the solar system is becoming possible for the wealthy. Space, however, is dangerous, and it turns out that booby-trapped spacetombs are even deadlier. However, this story is about love and loss, with a scifi setting for the scene to play itself out. Four characters face love and betrayal in a crisis situation, and in the end, the good guy almost wins a bittersweet victory.
Plotters & Shooters by Kage Baker
This is one for the gamer kids who got picked on in school. I didn't love it, but I finished it anyway. The intro calls it " 'Lord of the Flies for' " the technologic era. One of the gamers gains control over the bullies, but in doing so, becomes a bully himself.
Repeating the Past by P Watts
I only read a page or two of this story before it put me to sleep. In that bit I read, it seemed to have something to do with the nazi holocaust.
No More Stories by S Baxter
Dying mom thinks the universe revolves around her, according to narrator son. Surprise! It does! Quick read, but didn't seemed sort of superficial to me. I didn't get the usual scifi understory that emphasized the writer's objective. However, it was an entertaining read for the ride to work.
They Came from the Future by R Hitchcock
The Tomb Wife by G Jones
See Memorare above. Similar story, but this one was much less interesting.
An Evening's Honest Peril by M Laidlaw
End Game by N Kress
Induction by Greg Egan
A Blue & Cloudless Sky by B Ribbeck
Reasons Not to Publish by G Benford
Objective Impermeability in a Closed System by W Shunn
Always by KJ Fowler
Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by K MacLeod
Artifice & Intelligence by T Pratt
Pirates of the Somali Coast by T Bisson
This story is very very disturbing, becuase it starts out very innocent and funny, but quickly grinds down to terror. This story is written entirely in the form of emails from a boy on a cruise ship to his mother and his friend back home, Bug. When modern pirates attack the cruise ship, the boy is delighted. He shows no concern whatsoever about the escalating violence and death around him, and even joins in with the pirates to torture and murder passengers. When the navy finally arrives, the boy is the only one left alive. He is rescued, deemed a hero, and it appears that he has gotten away with sociopathic murder. But wait... the very ending is ambiguous - did the boy make the whole thing up?
Sanjeev & Robotwallah by I McDonald
Third Person by T Ballantyne
The Bridge by KA Goonan
This was my 2nd favorite story in the book. I'm a sucker for stories about love, loss, and lonliness. This is also a murder mystery of sorts. However, calling it murder depends on how you view the civil rights of artificial intelligences. In a frightening world changed forever by nanotechnology, the detective is drawn into a web of deceit by a beautiful blonde who thinks she is an AI. However, it is human greed that ends in murder. I liked the blending of future fantasy world juxtaposed against a detective in the film noir motif.
As You Know, Bob by J Hemry
The Lustration by B Sterling
I did not read this one. It just didn't capture my attention quickly enough to keep reading.
How Music Begins by J Van Pelt
This was my favorite story in the book, and I was glad that my unhappiness with the small font didn't make me put the book down before reading the end. A junior high school band and their teacher are abducted from the band bus by aliens. Over the course of a few years of daily practice, the band finally plays the perfect concert and are beamed back home. However, during the course of their abduction, the teacher and band members mature into a team who seek perfection in their own lives. The story has a bittersweet ending, when the band realizes that the most musically gifted among them is the only one who never was returned home.

DMcCunney · 07-18-2008, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elsi

I'm currently reading In the Midnight Hour by Patti O'Shea, one of the free books from TOR, also free for the Kindle at Amazon. I'm starting chapter 8, and really enjoying the book. I think I may have discovered yet another genre -- paranormal romance.

Another series you might like along that line is Laura Anne Gilman's "Retriever" series, featuring Wren Valere and her partner Sergei Didier. They're published by Harlequin's Luna imprint, which is devoted to fantasy of various sorts with romance as a sub-plot instead of the main element of the book.

Wren is a Talent - someone capable of sensing and controlling Current, a magical energy. She makes her living as a Retriever. A Retriever can find lost objects and get them back for the owner. In Wren's case, this usually means stealing them back from whoever stole them. Her partner Sergei is a Null, an ordinary human being who can't sense magic. He serves as her business manager and sets up her assignments when he's not busy running an art gallery.

Wren's life is complicated. For one thing, Current tends to flow along the same paths as electricity, so electronic devices like computers, cellphones and airport security scanners tend to misbehave in Wren's presence. For another, she's a Lonejack - an unaffiliated mage in a magical subculture dominated by the Cosa Nostradamus, a council of powerful mages who want every mage to be part of their organization and play by their rules. For a third, she has strange friends, like PB, a furry demon who looks like a four foot tall polar bear, works as a messenger, and likes cold pizza. For a fourth, she has to deal with the Fatae, a variety of species of magical creatures who are generally treated with fear and hostility by humans who become aware of them. For a fifth, Current is dangerous. It's hard to control, and it's easy to become a Whizzer, a mage who has channeled too much current and gotten lost in it.

And last but not least, she has a growing romantic relationship with Sergei, who has his own dark past and secrets that will affect Wren in unexpected ways. In many ways, the theme of the books is communication. It's what Wren and Sergei don't tell each other (for the best of well intentioned reasons) that come back to bite them.

The books are gritty contemporary urban fantasy, set in present day New York City, where you might just see a Fatae if you look, since the city has everything else.

Available at Fictionwise, in secure Adobe, eReader, MS Lit, and Mobipocket formats. Go here: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/Series606.htm
______
Dennis

nekokami · 07-18-2008, 09:52 AM

I'd say Patricia Briggs' "Mercy" series fall into this category as well. Moon Called is the first title. Available at Fictionwise in a variety of formats.

CleverClothe · 07-19-2008, 12:36 AM

Hi DixieGal. I just finished reading Year's Best SF 13 about two weeks ago and I really must suggest that you read "Lustration".

The story starts out pretty slow, yes, but it has a good lesson in it. The story is about an alien race that over the corse of eons (I wonder why they never developed further) have built a world spanning computer made entirely of wood. But for tens of thousands of years the computer has been throwing fits and breaking down. The priests believe that the computer is conscious and is suffering a mental breakdown because it is trapped living forever. But an average repair guy has a much different idea about the problem.

I really loved these stories:
How Music Begins
End Game
Induction
A Blue & Cloudless Sky
Objective Impermeability in a Closed System (similar to A Blue & Cloudless Sky)
Artifice & Intelligence
Third Person
The Bridge

Repeating the Past was very disturbing. It is about a decendent of a Holocaust survivor who joins a neo nazi group, even after his mother and grandfather (or grandmother, not clear) try to teach him to not repeat the horrors of the past. So the grandfather takes matters into his own hands and uses some mind altering equipment, that he and the mother have worked on, on the boy.

One wonders, how far should we go to prevent the horrors of the past being repeated?

montsnmags · 07-19-2008, 09:55 AM

I had started Stand on Zanzibar, but my mind's currently ascendant state isn't taking kindly to Brunner's particular smart-arsery at the moment (and, trust me, having read about 100 pages, my "smart-arsery" descriptor is meant in a complimentary fashion - I do intent to finish Zanzibar and then other Brunner books at some stage in the future...perhaps behind Proust's In Search of Some Missing Little Cakes which is the next seventh wave, about to break - possibly very shortly - over my head.

However, right this very minute, I am about to shut down my laptop, go to bed, and start Robert Dessaix's A Mother's Disgrace (since I have not long finished his beautifully melancholic Night Letters - I want to visit Venice, Locarno and Lake Maggiore, and Padua now).

Cheers,
Marc

zelda_pinwheel · 07-19-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montsnmags

However, right this very minute, I am about to shut down my laptop, go to bed, and start Robert Dessaix's A Mother's Disgrace (since I have not long finished his beautifully melancholic Night Letters - I want to visit Venice, Locarno and Lake Maggiore, and Padua now).

Cheers,
Marc

you do intrigue me... perhaps i should add that to my own list.

Elsi · 07-19-2008, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I finished Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thought it was a good story. I stayed up a bit late last night finishing it since I knew it must be wrapping up. Wow, you almost need a genealogy chart to follow this one! I'm still not sure I got it all.

However, I don't classify it is SF/Fantasy... more Occult/Horror... although it was very minor.

My bookswapping friends call that genre "PUF". Paranormal and Urban Fiction. A subgenre is Paranormal Romance.

Elsi · 07-19-2008, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Another series you might like along that line is Laura Anne Gilman's "Retriever" series, featuring Wren Valere and her partner Sergei Didier. They're published by Harlequin's Luna imprint, which is devoted to fantasy of various sorts with romance as a sub-plot instead of the main element of the book.

Available at Fictionwise, in secure Adobe, eReader, MS Lit, and Mobipocket formats. Go here: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/Series606.htm

Dennis - thanks for the recommendation. I'll look to see if any of them are available in Kindle format. If not, I may choose one of these as the first experiment for format shifting -- or using the Kindle PID with Secure MobiPocket. Could be an interesting computer exercise if nothing else!

Mindy · 07-19-2008, 05:44 PM

I'm reading Accelerando by Stross, which happened to come with my Cybook. I'm not really a hard sci-fi kinda girl and I can't help but feel that a lot of it's going over my head, but am persevering nonetheless and particularly enjoyed the bit in Edinburgh because it had landmarks and references I could related to.
Then I'm moving onto the Classics I have always meant to read but never gotten round to but now will thanks to the lovely, lovely, lovely uploaders of books here at MRF, who (whom?) I don't think I had due and proper appreciation and respect for prior to getting my Cybook.

07-17-2008, 02:23 PM	#652
DixieGal Hi There! Posts: 7,473 Karma: 2930523 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Ft Lauderdale Device: iPad	Finished: Year's Best SF 13 It's good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as usual because of a technical difficulty - it was in secure IMP format with smallish print. As my eyesight worsens, I'm finding that I have to use mobi2imp in order to get really large print. As for the stories themselves, about half had happy endings. The other half ended in doom and gloom. However, they were all truly good scifi, emphasis on the sci. TOC: Baby Doll by J Sinisalo Addresses a possible near future in which children ever more young live like favorite pop stars with drugs, sex, and overall jadedness. Frankly, it sort of scared me. Aristotle OS by T Ballantyne I enjoyed this story about "upgrades" to operating systems that were based on the writings of various philosophers. The OS's edit writing to reflect the various philosophers' world view. Now, back in the 80's, Asimov wrote something similar that this story reminded me of. In Asimov's story, back at the dawn of personal computing and word processing, he tells a story of a writer being forced to use a word processor, which is "smart" and learns his writing style well enough to edit him, then suggest writing ideas, and eventually take over writing books in the writer's style, thereby removing the writer from significance. The Last American by J Kessel Presented in the form of a documentary in the far future, when human history is being studied. To me, the subject of the documentary seems to be a blending of Columbus and Washington. He has mythological heroic deeds attributed to him, as well as, perhaps, exaggerated defeats and failings. Made me think of the History Channel documentaries. Memorare by G Wolfe (This was one of the Fictionwise freebies when it became a finalist for the Nebula award last spring) This was my second reading of this story, and although it was good the first time around, it was better this time. Having foreknowledge of events made things that previously seemed significant stand out even more. It's the semi-near future, and private space travel within the solar system is becoming possible for the wealthy. Space, however, is dangerous, and it turns out that booby-trapped spacetombs are even deadlier. However, this story is about love and loss, with a scifi setting for the scene to play itself out. Four characters face love and betrayal in a crisis situation, and in the end, the good guy almost wins a bittersweet victory. Plotters & Shooters by Kage Baker This is one for the gamer kids who got picked on in school. I didn't love it, but I finished it anyway. The intro calls it " 'Lord of the Flies for' " the technologic era. One of the gamers gains control over the bullies, but in doing so, becomes a bully himself. Repeating the Past by P Watts I only read a page or two of this story before it put me to sleep. In that bit I read, it seemed to have something to do with the nazi holocaust. No More Stories by S Baxter Dying mom thinks the universe revolves around her, according to narrator son. Surprise! It does! Quick read, but didn't seemed sort of superficial to me. I didn't get the usual scifi understory that emphasized the writer's objective. However, it was an entertaining read for the ride to work. They Came from the Future by R Hitchcock The Tomb Wife by G Jones See Memorare above. Similar story, but this one was much less interesting. An Evening's Honest Peril by M Laidlaw End Game by N Kress Induction by Greg Egan A Blue & Cloudless Sky by B Ribbeck Reasons Not to Publish by G Benford Objective Impermeability in a Closed System by W Shunn Always by KJ Fowler Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by K MacLeod Artifice & Intelligence by T Pratt Pirates of the Somali Coast by T Bisson This story is very very disturbing, becuase it starts out very innocent and funny, but quickly grinds down to terror. This story is written entirely in the form of emails from a boy on a cruise ship to his mother and his friend back home, Bug. When modern pirates attack the cruise ship, the boy is delighted. He shows no concern whatsoever about the escalating violence and death around him, and even joins in with the pirates to torture and murder passengers. When the navy finally arrives, the boy is the only one left alive. He is rescued, deemed a hero, and it appears that he has gotten away with sociopathic murder. But wait... the very ending is ambiguous - did the boy make the whole thing up? Sanjeev & Robotwallah by I McDonald Third Person by T Ballantyne The Bridge by KA Goonan This was my 2nd favorite story in the book. I'm a sucker for stories about love, loss, and lonliness. This is also a murder mystery of sorts. However, calling it murder depends on how you view the civil rights of artificial intelligences. In a frightening world changed forever by nanotechnology, the detective is drawn into a web of deceit by a beautiful blonde who thinks she is an AI. However, it is human greed that ends in murder. I liked the blending of future fantasy world juxtaposed against a detective in the film noir motif. As You Know, Bob by J Hemry The Lustration by B Sterling I did not read this one. It just didn't capture my attention quickly enough to keep reading. How Music Begins by J Van Pelt This was my favorite story in the book, and I was glad that my unhappiness with the small font didn't make me put the book down before reading the end. A junior high school band and their teacher are abducted from the band bus by aliens. Over the course of a few years of daily practice, the band finally plays the perfect concert and are beamed back home. However, during the course of their abduction, the teacher and band members mature into a team who seek perfection in their own lives. The story has a bittersweet ending, when the band realizes that the most musically gifted among them is the only one who never was returned home. Last edited by DixieGal; 07-18-2008 at 01:47 PM. Reason: Busy at work now, but I'll try to finish the story reviews later.

07-19-2008, 12:36 AM	#655
CleverClothe Guru Posts: 618 Karma: 493394 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Device: iRex iLiad, Onyx Boox 60	Hi DixieGal. I just finished reading Year's Best SF 13 about two weeks ago and I really must suggest that you read "Lustration". The story starts out pretty slow, yes, but it has a good lesson in it. The story is about an alien race that over the corse of eons (I wonder why they never developed further) have built a world spanning computer made entirely of wood. But for tens of thousands of years the computer has been throwing fits and breaking down. The priests believe that the computer is conscious and is suffering a mental breakdown because it is trapped living forever. But an average repair guy has a much different idea about the problem. I really loved these stories: How Music Begins End Game Induction A Blue & Cloudless Sky Objective Impermeability in a Closed System (similar to A Blue & Cloudless Sky) Artifice & Intelligence Third Person The Bridge Repeating the Past was very disturbing. It is about a decendent of a Holocaust survivor who joins a neo nazi group, even after his mother and grandfather (or grandmother, not clear) try to teach him to not repeat the horrors of the past. So the grandfather takes matters into his own hands and uses some mind altering equipment, that he and the mother have worked on, on the boy. One wonders, how far should we go to prevent the horrors of the past being repeated? Last edited by CleverClothe; 07-19-2008 at 12:58 AM.

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07-13-2008, 09:28 AM	#646
pshrynk Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah! Posts: 11,726 Karma: 8255450 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, aka America's IceBox Device: iThingie, KmkII, I miss Zelda!	"Glory Road" by Heinlein. Still waiting on "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress."

07-13-2008, 01:10 PM	#647
Lobolover Gorosei Posts: 421 Karma: 334 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Microsoft Word	will hopefully start "The hounds of Tindalos" soon.

07-14-2008, 11:13 AM	#648
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Re-reading Steven Brust's Athyra.

07-15-2008, 09:55 PM	#650
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,763 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I finally finished The Stand and it was really good. I've decided to reread The Puppet Masters by Heinlein. I'm about 1/2 done and I'm finding it better the second time then I did the first time.

07-18-2008, 09:52 AM	#654
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I'd say Patricia Briggs' "Mercy" series fall into this category as well. Moon Called is the first title. Available at Fictionwise in a variety of formats.

07-19-2008, 09:55 AM	#656
montsnmags Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,155 Karma: 4632658 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	I had started Stand on Zanzibar, but my mind's currently ascendant state isn't taking kindly to Brunner's particular smart-arsery at the moment (and, trust me, having read about 100 pages, my "smart-arsery" descriptor is meant in a complimentary fashion - I do intent to finish Zanzibar and then other Brunner books at some stage in the future...perhaps behind Proust's In Search of Some Missing Little Cakes which is the next seventh wave, about to break - possibly very shortly - over my head. However, right this very minute, I am about to shut down my laptop, go to bed, and start Robert Dessaix's A Mother's Disgrace (since I have not long finished his beautifully melancholic Night Letters - I want to visit Venice, Locarno and Lake Maggiore, and Padua now). Cheers, Marc

07-19-2008, 05:44 PM	#660
Mindy Away with the Faeries Posts: 483 Karma: 8459 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland Device: Sony PRS 650	I'm reading Accelerando by Stross, which happened to come with my Cybook. I'm not really a hard sci-fi kinda girl and I can't help but feel that a lot of it's going over my head, but am persevering nonetheless and particularly enjoyed the bit in Edinburgh because it had landmarks and references I could related to. Then I'm moving onto the Classics I have always meant to read but never gotten round to but now will thanks to the lovely, lovely, lovely uploaders of books here at MRF, who (whom?) I don't think I had due and proper appreciation and respect for prior to getting my Cybook.

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